Mississippi Science FSL.3C.4

ScienceGrades 9–12Foundations of Science Literacy

The Standard

FSL.3C: Students will apply scientific literacy and thinking skills to analyze scientific investigations found in various experimental designs including, but not limited to, those found in sample ACT science passages.

Predict how modifying the experimental design or adding another measurement in an experimental design will affect results of the experiment.

2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Nature of Science

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students look at an experiment, change one step or add a measurement, and predict what the data would show. They explain whether the change affects what happens, what gets recorded, or both.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given a sugar-dissolving test, a student predicts that stirring could shorten the time to dissolve. They explain that recording water temperature might reveal cooling, but would not itself change the dissolving time.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think adding a thermometer changes what happens rather than what they can see in the data. They may change both water temperature and stirring, then credit one change for a difference in dissolving time.
How to Assess It: You time how long a spoon of sugar dissolves in 100 mL of still water. Predict what might change if you stir five times per minute, and explain what measuring water temperature before and after could reveal.

Lesson moves

Time equal spoonfuls of sugar dissolving in equal cups of water, stirring one five times and leaving the other still.
Show two sugar trial records with start and end times only; ask what measuring water temperature at both times could reveal.
Give pairs cards labeled 'stir,' 'record temperature,' and 'add more sugar'; have them predict which change alters dissolving time or only records data.
Give students a recipe for instant cocoa; ask how stirring longer might change dissolving time and what recording milk temperature would reveal.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to FSL.3C.4, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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